Do we each have a soul that incarnates in different bodies over time? Most scientists in my experience dismiss any such idea, like they do most everything they cannot yet explain. But a true scientist would (a) keep an open mind on the question, while (b) devising a scientific test of the claim. And here’s where things become difficult – and interesting. Exactly how would one test the hypothesis of reincarnation?

If reincarnation occurs, then there is a connection between bodies in different historical time zones. Yet there seems to be no way that such bodies could communicate their special connectedness to one another. In the case that reincarnation occurs, is there some way for instance that I could communicate with my future self (or selves), and only that person or people, in a way that they could recognize came from me (their own past incarnation) and no one else? Thus far, I have not been able to imagine such a communication channel or message. It may be possible to design a message that is public and seen by all, yet is only understood correctly by a particular recipient, as with the signal sent by the USSR’s Strategic Missile Command to the leadership of the USA during the August 1991 coup.

It would seem that no such inter-carnate communication is possible between incarnations of the same soul. Yet all the scientific tests of the hypothesis of reincarnation I can imagine would require some form of direct communications between separate human incarnations of the same soul, in the case there was reincarnation. Suggestions for experiments most welcome.

1 Response to “Reincarnation”

Please forgive the off topic comment – just want to say I was floored by your positive review of Rupert Sheldrake and his new book. I read some of his writing a decade or two ago (morphogenetic fields) and was peripherally aware of this new one. Due to your recommendation will be getting a copy.

As to the reincarnation, some have gone at the problem by getting past life memories and then trying to validate them in the historical record. A man at the University of Virginia had some success with that approach. Not sure why that falls out of your possible tests.